First time P. Audax owner, need advice ^^

sekmet022

Arachnosquire
Joined
Aug 13, 2017
Messages
53
Before i move onto the topic of the post, i guess i should state that i live in Torrance, California. Here its regularly 70-80F with 80% humidity for what seems like year-round, winters feel like summers here x.x;

So anyway! I went shopping at Home Depot to purchase some veggie plants for the back garden, and discovered a hitchhiker on the side of a tomato plant pot. It turned out to be a P. Audax and a big fat one at that. Now mind you prior to this, spiders gave me the creeps, but i generally left them alone so long as i didn't find them crawling on me or on my bedroom walls.

Knowing that someone was bound to discover it and likely kill it, i weirdly enough decided to just purchase the plant (and the spider along with it) and take it home as a pet despite my (at the time) fear for spiders. I was fairly certain that it was female, judging by how fat she was, either she ate -really- well or she was pregnant.

Either way i didn't mind and since i was committed, went out to purchase a terrarium about a cubic foot in size, came with a wooden log, bedding and a plastic viney plant. Got her set up, fed her some large crickets, and eventually worked up enough courage after watching her for the day to let her out and crawl around on my hands (at that time i realized how silly i was to fear something so gentle and docile). She was too fat to jump so it was more of a waddle really... but i started to see the cuteness in her.

Lo and behold though, on the third day she begins spinning her egg sack in the top back corner of the cage, and has remained there since finishing for the past few days. (today marks the end of the first week of ownership). I will need to remove a small portion of the cocoon along the top lid in order to prepare it for possible babies (i was going to superglue some cut up pantyhose over the grate so the eventual babies can't escape through it. I didn't want to do that while the cocoon is so close to the top since i figure the fumes of the glue might harm them).

I've tried researching on how to take care of slings once they hatch, but the moisture thing is something i'm having trouble with. Ive seen some say to not spray otherwise they might drown, and others say they need moisture in order to help with the molting process. So how exactly do i handle this?

My google-fu is weak and it hasn't been giving me the kind of results i had hoped for. If anyone could point me to the right resources i'd be much appreciated. Primarily id like to know

1) How do i handle the moisture thing. And at what point should i start doing so after they hatch?

2) How often should i mist them?

3) How long should i retain slings before they can be released and capable of fending for themselves out in the wild?

4) is there a preferred food for when they're young?

I may be jumping the gun since the eggs could be duds, but shes from the wild so who knows?

Thanks in advance :) Any help is appreciated, id hate to waste life just because im a stupid owner xP
 

Duriana

Arachnoknight
Joined
Apr 23, 2017
Messages
198
I'm not personally too educated on this topic, but this link has some information at the bottom of jumper sling care.
 

sekmet022

Arachnosquire
Joined
Aug 13, 2017
Messages
53
Thanks so much for that informative link, it was exactly what i was looking for! <3
 
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